With the pricing and availability of GT2 bumper ducting pieces being silly I am surprised that people are not making replicas with 3D printers. Seems like a good opportunity to make some money and cyst cost on a GT2 bumper conversion. Any thoughts?

 

I think SRM used a 3D printer to make one of the fuel harness connectors in their kit. Maybe they can print what you are referring to?

 

+1 on silly rabbit motorsports but i think they will actually need the pieces to make a cad design?

 

I think you may find that's a pretty big piece to try and 3d print.

 

Surprised no one has made molds to create these out of fiber glass. Seems like it would be relatively easy, and certainly tons of such things exist for other sports cars in the aftermarket.

Ever since getting a 996 (and coming from other similarly priced sports cars to what 996's go for now a days) Its dawned on me the opening to make significant money on a ton of things exists considering all the aftermarket vendors price things as if the car were still a 100k+ vehicle. *Probably* where the vendors would lose margin they would make it up significantly in volume if they dropped prices to what is normal on other 30-50k cars in the aftermarket.

 

Some of that is starting to change but it hasn't reached the level of radiator ducting yet Stay tuned!

 

Let us hope it does. Been checking out CF interior pieces and was SHOCKED at what goes for "normal? in the 996 world. I can get the entire interior plastics replacement for my other car in CF for like $1500 with good fitment. In the 996 its like the pieces on the door only for that, which is reasonable for a $130k car, but I doubt many people who could buy the 130k own these cars any longer.

 

You have to remember c/f for these cars is only a wrap not true c/f pieces. Your paying for the priveledge not the part

 

Their are fiberglass duct replicas for the side radiators. And they are not ideal. Fiberglass is not flexible which these need to be somewhat. ABS type plastic is the way to go. And I would expect to buy OEM side ducts for prototyping.

 

that has to be a huge 3d printer -

 

Yeah, they exist. People use them for prototyping. The small ones are the consumer hobby ones everybody thinks about.

 

3D printing is slow and expensive. Plus, a 3D printer that big would be very expensive to own in the first place. I wonder what the cost of molding would be. How many different parts are there...3? Center, and two sides?


I have Solidworks and could model it if someone sent me the parts. This company makes injection molded parts quick and relatively cheap.
http://www.protolabs.com/protomold

I'm not too familiar with the cost of the OEM parts though...I would be surprised if you could mold them in our expected low quantities for cheaper.


Other option is fiberglass/carbon fiber like someone else stated.

 

2 centers(inlet and outlet over the hood) and I each side radiator. The side radiator ducts are ~$350-375 each. The center radiator ducts are like $150ea(x2).

The whole center radiator flip/tilt alone costs ~$2000 just to get proper aero and that is minus the bumper pieces. I have all the pieces to do the radiator flip/tilt currently minus the radiator brackets. But I believe I can make do without them with my fabrication skills. It just seems to me that if the radiator duct and bracket expense could be avoided with an aftermarket solution that proper GT2 bumper conversions would be much easier. precison Porsche has greatly reduced the actual bumper expense. But that does not offer proper aero without the ductwork and radiator tilt. Seems like a pretty easy thing to me. I will catalog my process to share when I do my process.

 

Have you looked at Shapeways ? Upload your file and they will quote you prices based upon measurements. Not sure if they have max size restrictions but never hurts to look

 

emachineshop.com . you upload cad and they send you a price.